Interesting Beginnings
by Xelan
Summary: A brief look into Lina Inverse's past. Fire and frustration combine to help form the Dra-mata we all know and love


Interesting Beginnings  
  
Another stab at Slayers fanfic writing by Xelan  
xelan@linainverse.com  
  
(Certain characters copyright H. Kanzaka / R. Araizumi, as all fans  
well know. Original characters belong to me. No copyright infringement  
intended. Remember: suing people is a bad thing.) ^_^  
  
This is not to be taken seriously and will most likely stay a one-shot  
story.  
  
-Nowhere in Particular-  
  
Contrary to popular belief, most epics, and many fireside tales; Lina  
Inverse was not always a money-grubbing, bandit-stomping, world-saving  
heroine. At one time, she was a young, sweet and innocent little girl.  
During that time she played with dolls; read stories about beautiful  
princesses, handsome princes, and evil sorcerers. A completely normal  
little girl; except, she practiced magic as taught by her sister.  
  
Ah yes. Magic taught by Luna, human host of Ceipheed. Ceipheed, being  
the god of light and eternal nemesis of Shabranigdo, was very used to  
the magical abilities of Dragons and Mazoku. He had never in his  
seemingly eternal existence tried teaching a human magic. This was  
where things stopped being mundane and became... interesting.  
  
Lina, who at the time was called Celina, was talented with human  
magic. She had a terrific knack for shamanism, was fair to passable  
with white and frankly terrifyingly deadly with black. However,  
Ceipheed was not human, not human at all. And being inhuman, he  
expected far more from poor little Celina than any other human magic  
instructor ever would have. Thus, when Celina failed to match his  
expectations, he, or rather Luna, would punish her.  
  
The punishments were not life-threatening, nor were they permanently  
debilitating. There would be no physical long-term damage to Celina.  
She would be fine; however, since Celina was an Inverse, she possessed  
an amazing amount of stubbornness. So much in fact that if a sorcerer  
threatened to fireball her if she didn't get out of his way, she'd not  
only remain in place and take the fireball she would even dare him to  
up the ante. Such is the way of all the Inverse Clan.  
  
This innate stubbornness combined with severe dislike of teasing over  
physical failings forced Celina to improve immensely. Not only did she  
gain several times the magical capacity of a normal wizard, she also  
also started casting spells beyond the ability of the head of the  
local Sorcerer's Guild. It was just after she dragon-slaved  
aforementioned Guild Director that she was awarded the title of Celina  
the Pink. Not wanting to have that embarrassing color associated with  
her name she promptly had them append the new title to include her  
hastily created stage name of Lina. So, from then on it was not Celina  
Inverse who was the up-and-coming Sorcery Genius, but Lina Inverse.  
She was quite content to practice her skills and become stronger until  
after Luna/Ceipheed decided to teach Lina god-magic.  
  
God-magic is the opposite of the black magic that draws its power from  
either a Mazoku lord or Shabranigdo himself. As would be expected,  
god-magic comes from one of the four dragon lords or Ceipheed himself.  
Since Lina was sealed in the god-sealing barrier, she could not draw  
on the dragon lords' power due to the fact they were outside. However,  
inside her sister was the god of the four dragon lords; she had no  
problem finding a power source. Although, being the only one who had  
the ability to draw on Ceipheed's power did make her stand out. Not  
that that was a problem, unless Lina did something to make Luna mad at  
her.  
  
What a day that had been. It was quite a long time ago and I'm sure  
Lina would prefer not to relive it. She had been drawing on Ceipheed's  
power to create a realistic, three-dimensional, meter-sized illusion  
of Luna taking a bath. It was purely fictitious and in retrospect, it  
is very possible that Luna would have been pleased that Lina was  
showing so much talent at creating such an original spell. If only  
Lina hadn't decided to make the bath a cold one, and if only Lina had  
not decided to charge 5 gold coins for a two minute showing to the  
local boys.  
  
While Lina had not actually seen enough of Luna unclothed to make it  
truly accurate, for some strange reason, Luna took offense. Not to say  
that Luna was perturbed; actually, she nearly leveled the town trying  
to punish Lina. It was at this point Lina decided to selectively  
forget god-magic and stick to the time honored spells of her  
ancestors. Most likely because as long as she used god-magic, Luna  
could track her anywhere; Lina promptly ran further then her legs  
could carry her and as she collapsed, she was struck by the idea of  
becoming a bandit hunter to fill her coin purse and her empty stomach.  
  
To be quite honest, it wasn't an idea that truly struck her then. It  
was an arrow. To be even more honest that arrow struck just slightly  
to the left of her. However, her _flare_ arrow was right on the mark  
as it impacted on the bandit that had shot the badly aimed arrow.  
Suffice it to say, there had been more then one bandit, and suffice it  
to say, she made short work of the other bandits. She also made short  
work of all the bandits' coin purses and increased the weight of her's  
a great deal.  
  
On that day, when Lina's hometown was basically burning to the ground  
and Luna was hunting for her missing little sister, Lina was having a  
gigantic dinner. On the next day; however, she walked into a clothing  
store, bought a sorceress' outfit and embarked upon a myriad of  
adventures and harrowing journeys. Not because she felt the need to  
continuously risk her neck, but because she feared her sister would  
catch up with her. To that end, she is still adventuring, first with a  
women in a black bikini and more recently with a blond swordsman, a  
princess, a grumpy chimera, and a dashing trickster priest, as well as  
a few others.  
  
As for the reason I have told you this intimate tale of Lina Inverse's  
childhood... _That_ is a secret... Bye Bye!  
  
The End  
  
Explanations:  
  
This story was based on only a few points from canon. Everything else  
was pretty much created by me. However, I am not sure whether I  
created the "magically create picture of Luna and sell viewing time to  
local boys" from canon or spliced it together from a fellow author's  
fanfic. If it is the latter instead of the former, then my sincerest  
apologies. *Gomen Nasai* If said author emails me with proof it is  
their original creation then I will either change the story or include  
credit to the author.  
  
Mazoku are basically demons under Shabranigdo, the Demon king who is  
himself under L-Sama, The Lord of Nightmares and creator of the whole  
world. The Mazoku feed on negative emotions like anger, fear, and  
hatred, that is the source of their power. As mentioned above, most  
black magic comes from high level Mazoku; the white magic used within  
the barrier is actually something entirely different from what it was  
supposed to be. As far as I know, true white magic should come from  
Ceipheed and other high Ryuzoku. I may, however, be wrong about this,  
but it helps make the story better, so who cares?  
  
Dragons or "Ryuzoku" are the enemies of the Mazoku. Their God is  
Ceipheed who at the beginning of time fought Shabranigdo in a  
supposedly eternal struggle. It, of course, did not last forever. He  
used most of his power to divide Shabranigdo into several pieces, seal  
him away, then went into a deep sleep. Later on, when Lei Magnus  
reawakened a piece of Shabranigdo, Ceipheed, along with the Water  
Dragon King, sealed him away in the North Pole. This thoroughly taxed  
Ceipheed to his limits and he reposited his spirit into the body of  
his Knight, Luna Inverse.  
  
Glossary:  
  
Mazoku = Demon Race   
Ryuzoku = God Race (literally Dragon Race)  
  
I have lousy grammar, but I do try. If you like my work and would like  
me to write more fiction, please email me and encourage.  
  
  



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